Packing peanuts are a big one they are probable the most discarded and yet are somewhat esxpensive to purchase. a one yard bag of packing peanuts retails for around $75.00.

One source for packing peanuts I've also seen is shredded white styrofoam sheets. this is material that can be made from new construction waste and all that is needed to produce it is a shredder with a sizing screen and baging system.

Cardboard gaylords are the 3ft square thick walled cardboard boxes, that are usually nailed to a wooden pallet. These retail new for about $50.00 - $100.00 each. They are often used for shipping plastic resin pellets. But many other industries use them as well. You can often get used ones for free or for a small nominal charge, and resell them to other industries that use them to ship bulk items. I know of one instance in particular where a local firm buys used gaylords from three large plastic molding companies, and resells them to a metal stamping company for a $20.00 profit per container.

Used cardboard boxes can also be acquired and resold in much the same way as gaylords.

Used pallets can often be resold or repaired and resold. One bad thing however is reselling pallets that have been imported from oversease. Unfortunatly some of these may contain insect hitchhikers and can devistate local environments. There are new laws going into affect essentialy requiring these pallets to be shredded or incinerated to help stop this problem. But there is a flip side to this the pallets deamed unsafe to resell can be recycled into fuel pellets SEE WOOD RECYCLING